So today the United States Marine Corps announced that they will begin allowing women to apply for and attend the Infantry Officer course at the School of Infantry.
The article can be found here: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2012/04/marine-corps-women-infantry-combat-dunford-amos-041812/ I'm sure many of you are sick of hearing me talk about the infantry and the military in general, but I think this is something that really needs to be discussed, considered and implemented in the right way. I am not a sexist. I have have known women in the military that could hang. That could throw 100 pounds on their back and ruck, that could carry men off the field of battle. When I went to Airborne school one of my instructors was female. A competitive body builder. A graduate of the Pathfinder school. I would have served with her in any capacity. I have no problem with women serving in the infantry provided it is done in EQUAL manner. Not the so called equality of affirmative action, not with the "standardized" gender based scoring of our current PT tests. No quotas. This is not an easy job. The tolls both physical and mental are horrendous, even during peace. Training can be just as deadly as combat. The major issue I see with this is going to be keeping the politicians and the politicized officers away from it. Look, we weed people out in the military. If you don't meet the medical and moral standards you can't join. You have increased physical standards if you choose to serve in an Airborne assignment, and we cut people there. We drop people at the school of infantry, and they go back to being civilians, or on to easier jobs within the military. We drop people after they get to their units for not being able to meet the standards. At every level there are a percentage that don't make the cut, and that number grows the more difficult the mission of the unit. Being infantry is harder than being a clerk, being Airborne is harder than being a leg, being a ranger is harder than that, SF standards are higher still, and CAG are fucking robots, machines. I don't want to be told I have to accept a soldier that can't do his or her job just to make a quota, or to look good in or on a paper. The PT concerns aren't the only ones. Women have higher necessary standards of hygiene. For all that we want to be gender blind, we are not physically the same. I know soldiers that had to go months without showering during the initial invasion of Iraq. They were too far ahead of the support, and their op tempo was too high, to be able to meet even the most basic of hygiene needs. They out paced their logistical tail. Women's monthly issues are going to be a concern, but we can get around that with hormone treatment, it will have to be required for infantry units. I wonder about the hygiene stuff, how bad can a yeast infection get and so forth. Opinions? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:350127 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
